Breakthrough

For the last couple of nights, I've experienced a bit of relief from the sleep-strike that Mia initiated about three weeks ago. We're still a long way from where she was at her best (sleeping 6 and 8 hour stretches here and there), but she's managing three and four hours at a time now for the majority of the night. It still gets a little tricky after 4 am, when she starts to get uncomfortable because she has to poop, and finally does so sometime between 5 and 7, at which point she either has to be changed and then won't go easily back to sleep, or falls asleep but doesn't stay that way long due to the diaper situation.

I'm tempted to try a probiotic again to see if it will help her get on a less inconvenient schedule, but I haven't yet had a chance to pick one up that's free of milk protein. (We had her on one for about four days that had casein-derived cultures in it, which she seemed to have a bit of an issue with.) However, it seems that our main problem was- as I suspected- largely teething related, and our recent respite has just perfectly coincided with a big milestone event.

Mia is now sporting her first tooth!

Let's all take a moment to welcome little Lower Left Incisor (whose mate is clearly not far behind).

From the right:

From the left:

From the front:

As for Mia, though she continues to gnaw and drool buckets, she's napping better and feeling pretty good lately.

And, despite my fears that she would fuss and fight me over these pictures, she was a real sport.

In fact, I think she rather enjoyed the gum massage that she got out of the whole ordeal.

My goofy girl. Goofy one-toothed girl, that is.